The Reconstruction of Moscow

SOCIALISM AND THE HOUSING QUESTION

The housing question, and questions of municipal services and enterprises in general have attracted atten- tion from the very first days of the birth of scientific socialism. As far back as ninety years ago Frederick Engels, after making a study of the situation of the Eng- lish workers in Manchester arid other towns of capital- ist England, wrote: "The manner in which the great multitude of the poor is treated by society today is revolting. They are drawn into the large cities where they breathe a poorer atmosphere than in the country; they are rel- egated to districts which, by reason of the method of construction, are worse ventilated than any others; they are deprived of all means of cleanliness, of wa- ter itself, since pipes are laid only when paid for, and the rivers so polluted that they are useless for such purposes; they are obliged to throw all offal and gar- bage, all dirty watefT, often all disgusting drainage and excrement into the streets, being without other means of disposing of them; they are thus compelled to infect the region of their own dwellings. Nor is this enough. All conceivable evils are heaped upon

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